Ultra-Feral
by matthewmspace
Summary: Skipper and Marlene have been a couple for months now. Bug a random bug bites Marlene and starts to affect her and everyone else. Will this be the end or will love hold strong? Independent of my other stories. Just a one off. This was my first story. Not exactly my best writing.
1. Chapter 1 - The Bite

Hello, and welcome to this Penguins of Madagascar fan story. It's my first time writing here. I noticed that there hasn't been much Skilene (or any) penguins fan fiction in awhile, so I'll try to see if I can revitalize that a little. Now, this story is rated T as a precaution because of some mild violence, due to (spoiler). Also, character death and back to life. Also, I apologize if the characters seem out of character. Anyhow, lets get this started.

**CHAPTER 1 – THE BITE**

It was a beautiful day in the Central Park Zoo. The sun was shining, the temperature was just right, and, for once, the penguins didn't have to fight anyone. "Alright, men," said Skipper, "time to commence training. We need to be sharp in case mother nature throws any nasty surprises at us." They were training for about an hour when Marlene came to visit and said, "Hey, guys! Isn't it a great day?" "It sure is Marlene," said Private. Skipper then said, "I agree. That's enough training for now, men". They all sat down and relaxed. "Commence Operation: Day Off, he said". They all giggled with glee. Private went downstairs to watch the Lunacorns, while Kowalski went to test some new experiments. Rico was being tested on for the inventions.

"So, Skipper," said Marlene, "Ready for our date?" To that, Skipper replied, "I sure am." They had been dating for a few months, and everyone in the zoo seemed to approve, except of course, Julian. He was massively Jealous of Skipper, because he thought Marlene should be his queen. "So where to this time, Marlene?" Skipper said. "Let's go get some snow cones in the park," Marlene suggested. Skipper said, "Great idea!" Ever since the Littlefoot incident, Marlene no longer went feral outside the zoo.

After they knocked out the snow cone vendor and got two snow cones, they just hung around the pond in the park, and remembered their memories they had of each other. "Remember that time when you said that if you ever faced raw sewage again, you hoped I would be at your side?" Marlene said. "Yes", said Skipper, "And I sure meant it. Look at where we are today. Having a great time and being together." Suddenly, a weird bug appeared out of nowhere and bit Marlene. "Ouch!" Marlene shouted. Skipper tried to swat the bug away, but it completely vanished [forever].

"Are you ok, Marlene?" asked Skipper, comfortingly. "It stings a little, but I think I'll be alright. But I still think I should check with our [Kowalski] doctor and see if there's anything wrong," said Marlene. "Good idea," said Skipper. But as they almost reached the penguin HQ, Marlene felt a lot of pain inside her. "Oww that bite is messing with the rest of my body now". "Well, let's go to Kowalski and see if he can figure out what's wrong. And we can always take you to the zoo doctor, too."

After they told Kowalski what happened, he asked Marlene, "for a blood sample." Even though, like Skipper, she hated needles, she agreed. "Hmm… This is very strange," Kowalski said. "Good strange or bad strange?" Skipper asked. "Not sure, it's just strange. Maybe the zoo doctor can take a look," Kowalski replied. As they were on their way to the hospital, Marlene felt that pain again, and it was even stronger. "Skipper dear, the pain is getting worse." "Well, I'll help you. Let me carry you so you can get some rest," Skipper said. "Good luck Marlene", all the penguins said after they knocked on the door.

The zoo doctor scooped her up and took her to the examination table. The penguins listened to him from outside. "You're feeling strange, aren't you, little one?" he asked. Marlene nodded. Suddenly, as she nodded, her pain finally got the best of her and she passed out. "Oh, no!" the doctor said.

And that's it for chapter 1. Please write a review, as it'll help me see if I need to change anything in the chapters I'm working on.


	2. Chapter 2 - Gone

Welcome back to the story. Thanks PB7 for reviewing and suggesting some good improvements. I edited chapter 1 a bit, and I hope those changes show up. Now, this chapter will most likely be really depressing for everyone. But don't worry; it's not the end. Also, the title is now a work in progress. I'm also working on a second story independent from this one. Let's get onto this. Oh, and if you see something like this * then there'll be a note at the bottom.

**CHAPTER 2 – Gone**

As soon as Skipper had heard Marlene pass out and the doctor's fear, he so much wanted to get in there, even though he couldn't. All he could do was listen.

"Nurse", the doctor shouted, "get me some electroshock paddles."

At the sound of that, Skipper became really afraid. It took all his energy to not run in there and do something risky.

"Clear!" the doctor shouted. Skipper could hear the shocks go from the paddles to Marlene. After many minutes and shocks, the doctor had to give up. "Nurse, please prepare a* plot. At the sound of that word, Skipper's heart just shattered.

"No, no, no!" Skipper shouted. All his hopes and dreams were shattered. He felt more depressed than he ever felt in his life.

He sulked all the way back to his HQ. When he arrived, the others were patiently awaiting him. Seeing Skipper on the verge of tears, Private asked, "Are you alright Skipper? What happened?" Skipper thought "Good old Private. Always thinking of others. Just like Marlene".

Upon that thought, Skipper let a tear drop. "Boys, I have terrible news." No one pressed him to tell. They just waited for him to continue. "Men, Marlene is gone. We need to go to her one final time." All the penguins' faces were shocked. Marlene gone? How is that possible?

They all thought of ways to try to make him feel better. Rico gave Skipper some flowers for Marlene. Kowalski said that he'll "Run a few more tests on Marlene's blood sample to figure out what happened." Private gave Skipper a hug. "Thanks, Private, I needed that. Let's go."

They went and paid their respects to Marlene, who was now buried. After what seemed like an eternity, Skipper finally got enough courage to ask the boys if he could be alone for a while. They all compiled, knowing how much hurt Skipper was.

Skipper said to Marlene, "Marlene, you were the greatest animal I ever knew. Always sweet and caring for others over yourself. You were the greatest girlfriend anyone could ask for. And then this incident had to happen! Why?! I swear that I will try to fix this and figure out what caused it. You have this as word of a commando and your lover."

Skipper then silently walked away, albeit slightly crying. Little did he know something (or someone) had heard the whole thing.

That's the end for Chapter 2. Told you it was hard. Who's the mysterious person who heard Skipper? And don't worry; this isn't the last of Marlene, in more ways than one. Now for the notes:

* This took me maybe half an hour (and a few episodes with Skilene) to figure out the most respectable, yet correct term. I seriously argued with myself (sort of) over whether to do the end of the story (and Marlene) or not. It was so nuts to deal with the fact I killed off Marlene (even maybe temporarily). I had to continue this story, though, as I hate abandonware for anything.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Return?

Ok, that was definitely depressing for everyone. Let's bring this back up again, shall we? I just couldn't leave the story at that point and had to write a third chapter. I've thought of a few titles, but those'll spoil the story. Also, I nearly lost this file. Thank goodness I decided to upload a draft to the doc manager. Let's get onto the story shall we?

**CHAPTER 3 – The Return?**

"Why, why did this happen?!" Marlene said to herself. "I remember nothing between the doctor and Skipper's speech! How am I here, yet not here? Where am I anyway? I'm so confused! I'll go talk to Kowalski again." She started walking toward the penguin habitat after saying that.

Little did Marlene know that she was now a ghost, and no longer alive. * Complete with intangibility, invisibility, and other ghost powers. ** All she thought was that she blacked out and was now somewhere in the zoo she never had been to before, for some reason.

Back at the Penguin HQ, Private and Rico were comforting Skipper, while Kowalski was frantically trying to figure out what happened to Marlene through her blood sample. "It's alright, Skipper," Private said.

"No, it's not," Skipper replied. "I took an oath upon myself to protect the zoo, and especially you men and Marlene. Now I've failed!" Skipper once again became teary-eyed. Up above, Marlene was quietly listening and thinking to herself.

"What does he mean, he failed to protect me? I'm right here. I was attacked, but I recovered, even though I wound up in a strange place. I need to patiently listen, I guess."

In his lab, Kowalski was running many, many tests on Marlene's sample. He was about to give up, when suddenly one of his devices was beeping. He quickly ran over to it and saw what was happening to the blood.

Marlene watched Skipper sobbing for maybe 5 minutes before she couldn't take it anymore. She decided to drop down the hatch and figure it out from Skipper himself. As soon as she dropped down, she thought of a million things to say, but could say one. "Skipper? Are you alright?" she asked in a comforting way that only she could.

Just as Kowalski was about to leave the lab to tell Skipper what he found about Marlene's cause of death, he swore he heard her voice. "No, that's not possible," he thought. "Marlene is gone, there is no way I heard her voice." Due to his scientist nature, Kowalski decided to check anyway.

As he walked out, he saw Skipper passed out. Private was just standing there, with his eyes wide and beak agape. When he looked across the HQ, there was Marlene. But how was she there?

That's the end of chapter 3. Yep, left two cliffhangers. What happened to Marlene that caused her to pass and how is she there now? You'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out, I'm afraid.

* Marlene looks like herself, but not solid. Kind of a cross between Private's pale figment of Mort in "The Penguin Stays In The Picture" and the nearly fully colored Alex in "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole". So she's about ¾ of the way colored she was in life.

** It's a fan fiction story.


	4. Chapter 4 - Weirdness

Well, it's time for chapter 4. I nearly hit a snag with this story, but thankfully I was able to push past that (yay for swimming giving me intense concentration). As usual, a * means that there are notes at the bottom. Oh, and this is where the story will start to get odd. So let's get to that, shall we? Also, sorry if the characters are out of character.

**CHAPTER 4 – Weirdness**

Kowalski couldn't believe what he was seeing. How was Marlene here if she was gone? He was so shocked that he couldn't even come up with math for how she was back. * "Kowalski?" Marlene asked. "What's wrong?"

Kowalski couldn't even reply, as he was so dumbfounded. Private said nervously, "Um, welcome back Marlene." "Thanks, Private?" she said. "What happened? Why are you all acting surprised to see me?" she asked.

Just then Skipper woke up. "What's going on Skipper?" Marlene asked. "Marlene! You're back!" Skipper exclaimed happily. As he ran to hug her, he passed right through her and nearly ran into the wall. "What just happened?" Skipper asked.

He tried multiple times and finally tried to just walk up and hug Marlene, but this attempt failed as well. "Why can't we hug each other?!" Marlene and Skipper shouted and cried, directing this at Kowalski. "Well, Marlene, I'm not sure how I can explain this to you any other way, but you're… not… alive," Kowalski said.

"What?!" Marlene shouted! "How am I not alive?! I only passed out!" she shouted. "No, Marlene, "Skipper said, "I heard the doctor myself. We visited you at your… grave." "I heard your speech, Skipper," Marlene said. It was very good and came straight from the heart. "Thank you Marlene," Skipper said. "But that still doesn't solve our problem. Kowalski?" Marlene asked.

"Well, I was just about to see what results came of me testing your blood when you came back," Kowalski said. "Let me check the results." Back at Marlene's body's resting place, something was causing the dirt to move around. Suddenly a paw appeared and started to try to get rid of the rest of the dirt in the way.

Back at the HQ, Kowalski came back in from his lab. "Marlene, I've got the results of your blood test and they're well… odd. "Spit it out man," Skipper said. "Well," Kowalski continued. "It seems that Marlene got a rare virus when she got bitten by the bug. The virus causes the original owner to be expelled and the virus takes over the host body. It's unknown what it does after that, but rumor is that it causes some zombie-like effects."

"Zombies? Are you sure man?" Skipper asked his lieutenant. "Well, I'm not entirely sure, Skipper, but I'd say we should prepare ourselves accordingly in case that's true." Kowalski replied. Back at the gravesite, the body that formerly belonged to Marlene finally dug itself out of the ground. Upon realizing this, it bellowed extremely loud. **

Oh, great, Marlene is both a ghost and a zombie. What'll happen next? How will they deal with and solve this problem? New chapter coming very soon. I'm working hard on "In Our World" as well. Please leave reviews for both stories. Now it's note time.

* As Kowalski's not usually dumbfounded, I found that'd be interesting.

** You know the bellow Marlene made on the obelisk in "Otter Gone Wild"? Make that 3 times louder and you get that bellow. Scary, right?


	5. Chapter 5 - The Attack

Welcome to chapter 5. This is probably where the most action will take place. As usual, *'s means notes at the bottom. To the story!

**CHAPTER 5 – The Attack**

Upon hearing that horrible bellowing, Skipper said, "Topside, everyone!" The Penguins climbed up the ladder frantically while Marlene simply reappeared above on the platform. "What is that?!" Skipper shouted when he saw what was coming towards them. It was Marlene's former body, except it was in feral form and obviously hunting for something.

"Marlene, we need your help right now!" Skipper said. "How?" she asked, in fear. "Please go stand in front of, well, yourself. Maybe it'll stop like Littlefoot did," Skipper asked her. Marlene carefully approached her former self (a couple yards away at this point) and stood in front of it, hoping this would end the same way Littlefoot did, calmly.

Unfortunately, the creature passed straight through Marlene (literally) and continued to snarl and move slowly towards the Penguin's island. "Options, Kowalski!" Skipper shouted. "Skipper, we need to deal with this the same way we tried to deal with you when we thought you were a zombie," Kowalski said quickly. "And that is what, Kowalski?" Skipper asked. "We need to entrap it in a cage and then run many tests," Kowalski replied.

"How are we supposed to get it into a cage? It'll try to attack us the minute it sees us close," Skipper said. "I don't know Skipper! Let's try it with the planes." Kowalski replied. Quickly, the Penguins dove back into their HQ and came flying back out in their planes, with a cage on Skipper's plane. All (ghost) Marlene could do was watch and hope nothing would happen.

Private, Rico, and Kowalski were to distract the creature by coming close (but not close enough) to it and then Skipper would drop a cage on top of it. The only problem was what they were supposed to do afterwards. A few near plane grabs later, the creature was in the cage. Each time a penguin tried to approach the thing that was formerly Marlene, it growled and snarled at them.

Finally, Skipper tried. Surprisingly, he was mere inches from the cage when the creature suddenly reacted and tried to bite his flipper! Thanks to Skipper's lightning quick reflexes, he dodged at the last possible nanosecond and jumped back. "Are you alright, Skipper?" everyone asked him. "I'm fine, but that was too close," he said. Suddenly, Marlene decided to try.

Marlene got all the way to the cage and nothing happened. Somehow, she managed to pick up the cage even though she was intangible. "How is this possible Kowalski? How am I able to lift the cage, yet unable to hug Skipper?" Marlene asked. "I don't know Marlene, but I'd appreciate it if you could move the cage into the lab for tests and plug testing equipment into the creature, seeing as it attacks the living," he said.

Marlene did so and the creature never reacted to any of it. After getting instructions from Kowalski through the (obviously barricaded) door, she just walked through it. "Any hope Marlene?" Skipper and Kowalski asked her. 

"I'm not sure, guys, but it's not reacting to any of the tests Kowalski said to do," she said. "I'm afraid there's only one option left Skipper. We must… terminate the creature. Unfortunately, there is a high probability we could also have Marlene be gone again," Kowalski said.

Skipper was dumbstruck again. Could he really lose Marlene again even after all this? "Marlene, this is definitely your choice whether we do this or not. It's your body that was taken away from you therefore you get the choice. After a few minutes of thinking, Marlene said, "Skipper, I would love to end all of this and not fade when that… thing is gone. I think we should try. As they say, love always prevails."

"Kowalski, prepare options to get this fixed," Skipper said. "I propose that we go with the old-fashioned way of dealing with zombies. Rico, handgun," Kowalski said. "Where did you guys get a gun?" Marlene asked. "We'll tell you later," Skipper said. "Who should take the shot?" Kowalski asked. "Marlene probably should, but I don't think she could hold the gun in her present state," Kowalski said. "You should do it Skipper. After all, you are the one dating Marlene," Private said.

"Thank you men. Wish me luck and keep an eye on Marlene for me," Skipper said. He unbolted the door and opened it. When the creature was about to pounce on him, Skipper fired. The beast howled in pain. Another shot and it was gone, dead and vanished, but left something in its place. It all looked like it was going well. "OWWWW!" Marlene screamed and fell to the floor. "Marlene!" Skipper cried.

That's the end of chapter 5. Not the best action piece, but it gets its point across. Will Marlene survive this again? What's the weird object that was left in the creature's wake? Rate and review to find out. No notes this chapter, I guess.


	6. Chapter 6 - A New Option

Time for chapter 6. As usual, *'s means notes at the bottom and (P) means perspective change. So let's get to the story, shall we?

**CHAPTER 6 – A New Option**

It looked like Marlene was slowly fading away. All she could say was, "Skipper I love you," as she faded. "I love you too Marlene," Skipper said. "I'm so sorry for this, Marlene," he said a few seconds later. Then suddenly, Marlene stopped fading, yet she was less solid looking. "I'm not gone?" Marlene asked when she realized she hadn't completely faded. "Kowalski, what happened?" Skipper asked of the scientist.

"It seems that Marlene only partially faded. Great balls of fire, what is that?" he asked no one in particular. "What's what? I'm not fading again, am I?" Marlene asked, very scared. "You most certainly are not Marlene. But what's this strange object where the creature was?" he asked himself. Everyone turned to see what Kowalski was heading towards.

"That looks familiar, Kowalski. What is that?" Private asked. "It appears to be a Higgs Boson particle," Kowalski explained. * "What does that mean for us?" Skipper asked, speaking of himself and Marlene. "It means I could clone Marlene and get her back to us. But I'll need a sample of her fur from before all this happened," he explained. "Outstanding, Kowalski! You stay here and get the cloning machine ready. And don't lose the particle!" Skipper said, emphasizing that last sentence.

"Yes, sir!" Kowalski said while saluting. "The rest of us will go and look around for a piece of Marlene's fur," Skipper said. "What about me?" Marlene asked. "Well, you know your habitat better than any of us, so maybe you could search there," Skipper suggested. "Ok," Marlene said, obviously agreeing. (P to Marlene searching around)

The four all went their separate ways throughout the zoo. Marlene went to her habitat, as suggested by Skipper. She searched around frantically looking for a piece of her fur. Finding that would mean she could finally be back with Skipper. Suddenly she collapsed and started fading again. "No! Please no! I don't want to fade and be permanently gone!" she shouted. Then, as if the universe had heard her request, she stopped fading before it got too far.

"I really need to find this fast!" she thought to herself as she stood back up. Suddenly she remembered that she had brushed herself before going to Skipper's yesterday. She frantically looked around for her brush. She then spotted it. "Oh, please let there be some fur on the brush!" she thought to herself again. Luckily there was.

She quickly grabbed the brush with the piece of her fur on it and suddenly started to grow brighter again! "Oh, thank you!" she shouted to no one in particular. She quickly ran back to the Penguin HQ when the other 3 came back. "Did you find anything Marlene?" Skipper asked her. "Yes, I've got it right here," she said showing the brush to him. "Outstanding!" he said.

"Kowalski, are you ready?" Skipper asked him, back in the lab. "Yes, Skipper. Please hand me the piece of fur Marlene," he requested. Marlene carefully picked the fur off the brush and gently handed it to him, hoping nothing would happen to it. "Thank you, Marlene. Are you ready to go back to being yourself again?" he asked.

"I sure am Kowalski! Are you sure this will work?" she asked. "Yes. Last time we cloned a Dodo many times and nothing happened. It will most certainly work. ** Now, please be ready to be transported back to yourself if this works," he said. "I'm ready," Marlene said. Kowalski flipped the switch and the machine lit up with multiple colors and started shaking a bit.

After 5-10 seconds, it was done. Kowalski opened the door and out popped Marlene. "Are you alright Marlene?" Skipper asked her. "I'm still over here Skipper," ghost Marlene said. "Kowalski explain," Skipper said to the scientist. "It seems the machine only re-cloned the body, but didn't move Marlene back," he explained.

So what do you think of the new chapter 6? Please remember to rate and review. Time for a couple of notes.

* Reference to "Endangerous Species." Plus, it seemed like the easiest way to bring Marlene back fully.

** Yep, still referencing that episode.


	7. Chapter 7 - Finally Over

Time for chapter 7. As usual, *'s means notes at the bottom and (P) means perspective change. So let's get to reading, shall we?

**CHAPTER 7 – Finally Over**

"Why didn't I go back to my body?" Marlene asked Kowalski. "I'm not sure Marlene," Kowalski said. She started walking over to her body and suddenly tripped into herself. Her arms were stuck in her body. "Uh, guys? I'm stuck," she said to the Penguins. "Yes, Marlene, but look. Your arms are moving," Skipper said.

Marlene gasped when she saw her arms moving. "So I just fall into myself?" she asked Kowalski. "Well, since your arms are reacting to your mind, I'd say that is a good idea," he suggested. "Well, here goes everything," she said and fell into herself.

Back in her body, Marlene suddenly gasped awake. "Am I back, Kowalski?" she asked. "Yes, Marlene," he said. "Skipper!" Marlene shouted. "Marlene!" Skipper shouted. They both started running to each other, hoping this nightmare was truly over.

They both ran straight into each other's arms/flippers. "I love you, Skipper," Marlene said. "I love you too, Marlene," he said. And with that they both kissed, thankful this nightmare was finally over. "Aww," Private said, with Kowalski covering his eyes with his flipper.

A month after the whole thing had taken place, Marlene and Skipper were getting married. Of course, Skipper had proposed to Marlene with the way she wanted: under the moonlight with romantic candles, with a Spanish guitar to serenade her, and a bouquet of oysters on half shells arranged to spell out "Marlene". *

Becky and Stacy were Marlene's bridesmaids. Private was Skipper's best man, since Kowalski was the one to be marrying Skipper and Marlene. Skipper was wearing a bow tie much like Private's, except it was black and not red. **

Marlene was wearing a beautiful white wedding gown. The best moment, of course, was when Kowalski said to Marlene, "Marlene, do you take Skipper to be your lawfully wedded husband?" "I do," Marlene said. "Skipper, do you take Marlene to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Kowalski asked his commanding officer. "I do," Skipper answered. "Then you may kiss the bride," Kowalski said. And they did.

A few weeks more after the wedding, Marlene and Skipper were once again in the park, resting underneath a tree. "I'm so glad we solved that problem," Marlene said, speaking of the incident from about two months before. "I sure am Marlene. If anything, it got us even closer. I'm so thankful we didn't lose each other and that we're married," Skipper said back to her.

"Skipper, I've got something to tell you," Marlene said. "Oh? What is it my little Marley?" he asked *** Marlene smiled when she heard him use the pet name he had for her. "Well, Skipper, I don't know any other way to put this, but I'm pregnant," she said. "I have no idea how that happened, Marlene, but I'll be sure to take care of you and our future child," he said. ****

"Marlene sighed with relief, thankful this had all worked out for the best. "I love you, Marlene," Skipper said. "And I love you, Skippy," Marlene said, creating a new pet name for him.

That's the end of the story, but don't fret. I'm not done writing. Go read the epilogue to this (go to the next chapter) and you'll see why. Time for the second-to-last notes.

* Reference to "Monkey Love" when Marlene accidentally spilled the beans on how her lover would propose to her. Hooray for Skipper remembering!

** Referencing Private's bow tie from "Mr. Tux." Just imagine that bow tie as black and on Skipper instead of Private.

*** I didn't invent these pet names at all. I just borrowed them from Rookie70Penguin. That's all I'll take from anyone's stories. I hope if she reads these, she doesn't mind that I used those pet names, as they're quite good.

**** In other stories, they've had kids. Why not here as well? Now please go to the epilogue.


	8. Chapter 8 - Epilogue

So this is the epilogue to "Ultra-Feral." Now to answer some questions you may have. This entire story is its own independent thing. It's not related to my other story at all. Also, there will probably never be a sequel to this. Sorry if it seems like I rushed this, which I feel like I have. The idea honestly sounded better in my head than on, well, paper, I guess. This is my first story, but I still don't find that acceptable. But at least it's finished.

I think I may have rushed this story in order to really develop "In Our World," which'll now be my main focus. I hope you read that story and enjoy it very much. I've got some ideas planned for it, which I'll reveal later (at the end of that story). If you've been following from the beginning, or just found this story, thank you for making it this far. Please rate and review this story. I always like to have feedback for things I create.

I'd like to give a shout out to PB7, who's constant reviews helped me make this story better over time. Go read her stuff, because it's really good. Once again, thanks for reading this and I'll see you very soon.


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